Skip to main content Buy your ski passes now
SeeAlpedhuez

Garage Les Marmottes, Alpe d'Huez

Don't panic if you have car trouble in Alpe d'Huez..

featured in Garages Updated

The long drive from the UK down here to the Alps coupled with potentially extremely low temperatures here in resort, can play havoc with even the most prepared of motorists plans. But fear not if you have mechanical problems here in Alpe d’Huez, help is at hand and is ready and waiting to assist you at Garage Les Marmottes.

It's situated just “below” the Les Bergers Commercial Centre on the “alternate” road out of town, the D211F (not on the main Tour de France/main bends road), in the Outaris Quartier of town.

Run by local Frenchman, Alpe d’Huez resident and mechanic, Didier (who could only be more French by the addition of a beret and a garland of onions) the garage really does offer everything for the motorist in distress or in need of more basic planned/routine maintenance.

So if the extreme temperature has killed off your battery, glow plugs given up the ghost in your Diesel engine, your wheels need balancing or you have simply broken down on the bends or here in town – Didier is your man.

The garage services include:

  • New batteries (Huge quantity stocked)
  • Winter/Snow tyres (Huge quantity stocked)
  • Summer tyres
  • Snow chains
  • Brake pads and discs
  • Suspension
  • Wheel alignment and balancing
  • Diesel engine glow plugs
  • Emergency recovery (4x4 Tow truck)
  • Full range of mechanical works
  • Engine Diagnostics
  • Routine services
  • Emergency repairs
  • Control Techniques (French equivalent of the British MOT)

Over the years I have had loads of works done at at the garage (new brakes, new radiator, many services, glow plugs, new exhaust, new radiator and even a mountain recovery from the church in Huez) and all his work really is of the top order.

Another nice thing is that if he replaces a part during a service he keeps the old part to show you what was defective with it and why he had to replace it, a nice reassuring touch when you are in a foreign country, and are potentially an easy target to be ripped off.

The garage also holds an impressive stock of parts, which is a bonus given its location at the top of a mountain, meaning that a surprising amount of repairs can be carried out without the need to wait for a delivery from the nearest motor factor (in Espace Comboire, Grenoble).

With Didier being a typically old school Frenchman don't bother going to the garage between 12pm and 2pm (sometimes more like 2.30pm) as he will be at home on his lunch break, this never changes no matter how pressing you think your repair is, so bear this in mind!, it might be an emergency matter to you but so is Beef Bourguignon to Didier!

Didier doesn't speak a word of English but genuinely is a nice honest guy and lots of gesturing, arm waving and pointing (a good old game of charades basically) will get your point across and indeed his back to you and will all result in a good old fashioned hand shake – no wet lettuce hand shakes here!.

The garage also has the resorts only “petrol station” – Service Station French D - which is open 24/7, but is automated between 6pm and 8am. And for you diesel car drivers the garage also dispenses “excellium” diesel – basically a super-duper diesel fuel with special additives to prevent gelling of the diesel at temperatures below -15degC, if you run ordinary diesel up here in resort in mid-winter low temperatures (-15/20degC), it may “gel” and get thicker and the fuel pump in your diesel car really won't like that!!!!!, so it really is worth spending the extra few cents when putting diesel in your car up here in Alpe d’Huez.

The garage/service station can be contacted on the following:

Office +33 4 76 79 90 83
Mobile +33 6 07 82 13 57
Petrol station +33 4 76 80 36 49

Location

Map of the surrounding area